Mi2g issues too precise of guesstimates
Mi2g issues awfully precise of guesstimates
Virus Hysteria Alert: Hysteria related to a publicity stunt? Computer security firm mi2g unveiled its guesstimates for "global economic damage" over the last nine years resulting from "all types of digital risk manifestations." Vmyths dismisses mi2g's figures as a blatant publicity stunt. Every guess in mi2g's report is absurdly precise. In 2004, for example, they calculated the total "global economic damage" at $456,134,500,000 to $557,497,700,000. These figures reveal an accuracy of plus or minus $100,000, worldwide, for "all types of digital risk manifestations" in 2004. mi2g used SEVEN significant figures in many of their guesses. In economic terms, it means mi2g's underlying data must be accurate TO THE DIME, if not to the penny. As in, "the MyDoom attack caused precisely $368,714.2 in total economic damage to corporate site X, while the Klez virus caused precisely $117,644.9 in total economic damage to military site Y..." No respected economics expert will declare five significant figures -- let alone seven! -- for the total cost of the World Trade Center attack in September 2001. It would violate the economic analogy for Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Yet mi2g offers absurdly precise global computer security economic damage guesstimates for every year back to 1995. mi2g has never explained how THEY ALONE can acquire enough absurdly accurate microeconomic data to satisfy their macroeconomic forecast model. Assuming such a model even exists. mi2g has repeatedly declared "$1,500.00" for the cost of one manday. But here's the catch: they won't call it a manday. Rather, they call it an "equivalent person day." mi2g has never adequately defined this term. Do the math, folks. Are mi2g's guesstimates are a publicity stunt?
